Mob lynches kidnap suspect in Kaduna

Police arrest suspected fake soldier
At Barnawa, Kaduna South local council yesterday, angry mob burnt to death a suspected kidnapper, whose identity is still unknown, for allegedly attempting to kidnap a four-year-old boy in the area.

According to eyewitnesses at the scene of the incident, the suspect had successfully concealed his victim, Al-Mustapha Aruna, in a sack and kept him in his tricycle, popularly known as Keke NAPEP.

However, it was the boy’s shrieking cries from inside the sack that eventually attracted the attention of passersby, who subsequently accosted the tricycle operator for questioning.

The mob became enraged after the suspect could not give them any reasonable response to why the boy was in the sack, including the name of the victim.

At the boy’s residence situated at No. 27, Indian Road, Barnawa, Kaduna, which is just a stone-throw from LEA primary school where the boy was kidnapped, the boy and his parents were still in huge shock.

Mother of the child, Hanatu Al-Mustapha, said she was never suspicious that anything of such had happened to her child until sympathisers started thronging their apartment to congratulate her.

“My son left for school this morning. I never knew that someone was planning to throw us into mourning. I would have waited for him to come back home after the closing hour. But thank God, my son was saved.”

Thirty-eight-year-old father of Haruna, Haruna Daudu Almustapha, said he couldn’t believe his eyes and ears when people rushed to his house to inform him of how his son was luckily rescued.

When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, could not give details of the incident as at time of filling the report.

In another development, a man, Abdul Mohammed, has been arrested in Kaduna for impersonating an army private. The suspect was said to have dressed in full military camouflage to extort money from residents under the pretense of being a soldier.

Mohammed was arrested by a surveillance patrol team along Zango road in Tudun Nupawa area of the state.

According to the Police PRO, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, “the suspect was spotted on April 11, 2016 at about 10:30p.m. in full military camouflage with a bullet proof jacket and tried to conceal himself in suspicious manner on sighting policemen.

“When the policemen asked him, he could not give a satisfactory account of himself. Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, who is from Tudun Nupawa, Kaduna, is not a genuine soldier but wears the military uniform to commit crime,” he said.